Football

Nebraska football fans weren’t waiting in line to buy tickets in advance of the 1996 New Year’s Eve FedEx Orange Bowl against Virginia Tech. Quite the contrary. Each team received 15,000 tickets. If not sold the university had to make up the difference. That was no...

Matt Rhule sent his players back out from the locker room to the field following Nebraska football's 34-31 victory at Maryland Saturday. Of course that’s not something he ordinarily would do. But the energy from Husker fans, about a quarter of the 39,623 in Maryland...

Matt Rhule’s comment was light-hearted, with an element of intent. “It’s OK to say something positive,” he told media during his Monday news conference. The comment came on the heels of questions related to issues needing correction. So let’s begin with some positives...

Texas gambled. And the gamble paid off. With time running out in the first Big 12 Championship Game in St. Louis on Dec. 7, 1996, the Longhorns faced fourth-and-inches at their own 28-yard line. Nebraska’s defense, which had already allowed 30 points, lined up to stop...

After a 38-27 comeback win over the Michigan State Spartans, Nebraska football head coach Matt Rhule said he's looking forward to the Huskers’ first Big Ten road test against Maryland on Saturday. "Maryland will present quite a challenge," Rhule said Monday afternoon....

For some reason the point spread for the Nebraska-Michigan State game at Memorial Stadium Saturday was the Huskers by 12.5. Or so I was told. That seemed a bit much. But when Nebraska scored a touchdown, an Emmett Johnson 2-yard run, on its first possession, and then...

You might say Nebraska football plays the most important game of the season Saturday afternoon at Memorial Stadium against Michigan State. And you wouldn’t be wrong, taken in context. The game is more important than any the 3-1 Huskers have played because those games...

Defense was the difference for fourth-ranked Nebraska. “I thought the defense played awfully well,” Tom Osborne said following the Huskers’ 17-12 victory against Colorado in the final regular-season game at Memorial Stadium, the day after Thanksgiving 1996. Consider...

It was a showdown of sorts for the Nebraska football defense at Iowa State’s Cyclone Stadium/Jack Trice Field on a rain-soaked, 50-degree afternoon in mid-November 1996. The Husker defense was matched against Iowa State running back Troy Davis. The Blackshirts ranked...

After a close loss to the No. 21 Michigan Wolverines on Saturday, Nebraska football head coach Matt Rhule's message was simple going into the idle week. "We're going to have to play better, we're going to have to coach better," Rhule said Monday afternoon. Nebraska...